I have been watching this thread for a bit, and will now share my prespective :
i have been firmly in the 'anything but ipod' category for about three years now. i bought one of the 5g ones after pondering it for a while and for me it was amazing that you couldn't rename a song on the device, nor could you delete one. No, itunes for that. i simply couldnt get over that. so i got rid of it and never looked back.
well, sort of.
there is no doubt about it, apple is genius when it comes to design. i watched and secretly pondered, all the while wondering why i could not bring myself to 'like' apple products, and i think i know why; they aren't 'gadgets' in that sence of a word, they are appliances. not meant to be fiddled with. i think that is alot of why i didn't like them. i love my 770 (on it now btw) but i must say i have been eyeing the touch, not to replace the IT but to compliment it, i dont like to drain my battery on the 770 (or n810 when i get one next weekend) when i want to listen to some music. ( also considering the samsung P2 for its a2dp )
in short, i wish i could just consider the touch like i do any other device, but being that it is an apple it seems to refuse that consideration
-ezra hilyer

From a different perspective - today a coworker had their teenage son at the office with a new iTouch, loaded up with the many, many hacks that are out there to run non-Apple apps on the thing. Everyone who saw it was amazed at the amount of third party stuff going on and the "coolness" factor of the whole thing. Such as games that interact with the tilt angle of the iTouch. I could never get people that excited about my N800. The fluid screen interaction is far more impressive than the clunkiness of the Nokia zoom & scroll. Granted, the comparisons of what you will actually do with the iTouch vs. the IT might be apples & oranges. There was general agreement that the lack of memory slots was a big downer for the touch.

Very different indeed. Does it have the ability to select text, or copy & paste text yet? I remember that was one of the big downfalls of the iPhone.

Things like that are not immediately obvious if people focus on the games with the tilting ball thingamajigs.

Yeah. Apples and Oranges. I don't need a pocket games machine (might be nice, but it's not what I need). I don't need a pocket mp3 player (I had one, an iPod, and never used it). I need a connectivity device ... not just web, but email, IM, and ssh (and preferably vnc). With keyboard support that lets me have a close to full txt window for ssh (the NIT's xterm can get _close_ to 80x24, when in full screen with no tool bars, etc.).

The Touch just can't do those things right now.

I've had 3 iPods - an original [1], a mini [2], and a video[3]. All run MP3 happy as anything. I use the current one daily for when I'm walking or riding powered or unpowered 2 wheelers, and occasionally if I'm in a car to connect to the car's FM.

For a bit the current one was loaned to my father who was in hospital, and I used the N800 as an MP3 player.

I was so happy to have the ipod back! for me the biggie was control of volume and stop/start/nextsong/lastsong by fingertip without having to look. Also the bookmarking of podcasts and spokenword MP3s (my main listening is stuff recorded from BBC7 and Radio4 and podcasts). Those mean a non-touch iPod is far far better than the Nokia for my purposes.

And a Touch would be horrible except for the bookmarking

On the other hand, video via mplayer on the N800 is much nicer than the iPod. (I wouldn't have bothered with a video if I could have found an 8gb Mini to replace the dear departed. But I couldn't at the time)

So the N800 is used for ebooks and movies and messing about with python and some web browsing and a few other odds and sods, the iPod is the music player of choice.

I would rather like Ogg, but I'm happy enough with MP3. Plus the combination of iRecord (to record BBC), iTunes (on the mac, I don't do MSWindows), and the iPod is a real killer and so far no open source solution has come close to the ease of use and power.

I fiddled a bit with mplayer before buying the 2nd hand ipod and 2nd hand imac, but at the time there was nothing to beat the Apple combo. And still isn't really.

Zebee


[1] got a bit dodgy in the disk and USB department, finally passed on to a 13yo who loves it.

[2] died in an unfortunate freeway incident involving a not-properly-zipped motorcycle jacket pocket

[3] still in daily use.

Unsurprisingly. I can't believe that you ever tried to replace a classic iPod with a Nokia tablet when the differences as a dedicated MP3 device are so very obvious (first and foremost the iPod's ample storage capacity, secondly the iPod being somewhat more pocketable, thirdly the iPod having longer battery life when used for MP3 playing only).

My 30gb iPod Photo sits side by side with my 770, and it understands that it is in no way related to the other device.

See above: "loaned to my father who was in hospital". He had more need of it than I, so I made do with the N800.

I figure the N800 does well as an Mp3 player, the iPod is just way better.

Zebee

I earlier bought a Nano clone, The Best Buy Insignia, because it has an actual, physical control wheel, like the earlier iPods.

I thought Apple had the control-wheel design more-or-less locked up in patents and was surprised to see a cheaper competitor use one. I think this kind of tactile, intuitive feedback beats a touchscreen for quick & sightless control.

Unlike the iPod touch-pad wheels, it also has raised lines on it for added grip and response. The slippery Nano wheels kind'a frustrate my thumb!

But...
Unlike a iPod touch-pad wheel, I'm not betting on the physical wheel to last as long (kind'a moot, considering how quickly outdated MP3 players become).

While the Insignia has a much quicker interface and rudimentary EQ, what it doesn't have is the richer sound of my N800. Heck, it doesn't sound as good or loud as my old budget-brick Classic XP3 did - (w/ the cheesiest interface in the world) I think it's a size trade-off, as the iTouch also sounds better than the little Nanos.

For as down as I am on the iPod family (don't make use of the iPod I have, don't want an iPod Touch because I don't find it to be an acceptable replacement for my NIT), it's not because I think it's an inferior MP3 player. In fact, I think the iPod family (in its physical wheel, or virtual wheel, forms) is about as close to a perfect MP3 player as you can get. (not sure about the Touch on that one ... I haven't used it enough to know how it does as an MP3 player, but either way, the older iPods were just about perfect in their simplicity and optimized experience)

Specialized devices should be expected to be better at their task than a general device. I don't expect the NIT to ever be a better camera than an actual camera. I don't expect the NIT to be a better MP3 player than a dedicated MP3 player.

My reason for not being excited about older iPods is: I don't need a dedicated MP3 player.

My reason for not being up on the Touch is: what I need is something like an UMPC or MID, and the Touch is rather inferior in this capacity, right now. The official SDK might change that, by bringing in an application ecosystem which adds the missing functionality. But, for now, when it comes to the device I need, the Touch just doesn't compare to the N800/N810. I don't need a media player, I need a connectivity and communication device. Even the iPhone is missing a few key pieces that keep it from being a good candidate for me (but, again, the SDK might change that ... then it would just be that I don't want to deal with AT&T, and it doesn't have physical keyboard options (built in, nor external)).

I'm not sure if this was mentioned yet, but anybody looking for a alternative to the on-board software on an IPOD should look at ROCKBOX.ORG, which is basically open source community created software.

It was created to run on a number of audio devices giving them relatively equal capabilities. There are customizations of the software for individual devices (such as some video capability on the iPods) but that is not its stated goal.

That being said, there are some capabilties in the rockbox software that may be very important to people (unlimited bookmarks, games, great search database, lots of codec support, very cool skins, etc). Everybody on this forum should check it out.

Oh yeah, you decide whether to boot the Rockbox or the Apple firmware. Cool.